Olympic Games 2024: Clarisse Agbégnénou criticizes the rules for selecting French flag bearers
French judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou expressed her disagreement with the rules for selecting French flag bearers for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, this Sunday March 17 on social networks.
A reaction which follows the announcement of the French Olympic Committee, which chose to exclude in particular candidates who had already taken on this role in the past.
French flag bearers Clarisse Agbégnénou and Samir Aït Saïd with the French delegation during the opening ceremony of the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
© AFP / BEN STANSALL
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Excluded from a possible candidacy as standard bearer for the Paris Olympic Games, after having already carried out this mission in 2021, judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou explained her dissatisfaction this Sunday March 17 on social networks, evoking in particular the frustration linked to the absence of spectators in Tokyo in 2021.
According to the rules unveiled on March 13 by the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), contenders for the status of flag bearer must, among other things, have already participated in the competition, not have been convicted of doping, but also not have already been a flag bearer. -flag during previous editions, like Clarisse Agbégnénou in Tokyo in 2021 or Teddy Riner in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
A choice that the 31-year-old judoka, double Olympic champion, criticized and which she returned to on Instagram.
“
Of course, I hear that other people need to be standard bearers too
,” she began.
“
I wanted to represent myself because it was not easy at the Tokyo Olympics
,” she continued, referring to an opening ceremony carried out with a mask and without an audience due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. .
“
So it remains something that I have done half-heartedly... I feel a little taste of unfinished business.
This is why, for me, it does not give us the right to deviate by creating new rules
!
»
Let us be very clear and avoid any confusion😒
The element that I find unfair for the nomination of the flag bearer is not so much that we cannot be it several times but rather the fact that some of my fellow Olympians👨 🏻 automatically ❌ and who deserve it!😏
Have a nice day❤️✨
— AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@Gnougnou25) March 15, 2024
Flag bearers elected by the French delegation
Four athletes will be designated to take on this role during this edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, two women and two men.
On Wednesday March 13, the six-time world champion reacted to a survey which placed her at the top of the favorites to occupy this position among women.
“
There are the French and the figures who express a certain will and on the other side people work behind the scenes to impose discriminatory conditions to designate the standard bearers
,” she wrote on X.
This Sunday, March 17, she finally closed part of the debate by writing: “
Now, it is no longer a subject
.”
For the first time, the four standard bearers of the Olympic and Paralympic teams will be elected by their peers.
The federations will each be able to present one candidate.
The vote will then be carried out with all the athletes of the French delegation.
The names of the four elected officials should be revealed in mid-July.
(With AFP)
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